Yael Shochat: an open letter to the Israeli and Jewish community

Palestinians attend an anti-Israel rally in Gaza City on June 8. Photo / Getty Images

Yael Shochat is a chef and an Israel-born Jew. In a raw and heartfelt open letter to the Israeli and Jewish communities, she calls for honesty and compassion.

It's been just under a month since the ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. The people in Gaza are busy clearing the rubble after the devastating bombing, the Israelis can resume their normal life out of the bomb shelters. A normality of sorts for the Jewish population in Israel, but a more questionable return to normality for the Arab population of Israel, as they are left wondering about their future.

On Saturday May 22, two days after the announcement of that ceasefire, a group of New Zealand Jews held a vigil in central Auckland. We stood together with New Zealand Palestinians, in grief for the loss of lives. The Palestinians had framed pictures of every child that was killed in Gaza and we, the Jews, placed a candle beside each one as is the Jewish tradition when honouring the dead. We had a candle for every Palestinian and Israeli life lost. Thirteen candles for lost Israeli lives of which two were children, and two 256 candles for lost Palestinians, of which 66 were children. Each one of these candles, as is said in Judaism, represents a whole world - each life is a whole world - in Hebrew we say עולם ומלואו-

I stood at the vigil and delivered my heartfelt words. I knew that if many of you from the Jewish and Israeli communities were there with us, you would have felt uncomfortable with some of the things I said. That is often the case when you come against another person's truth.

Photographs from that night have been shared among you and I understand there has been much anger. I've been labelled, once again, anti-Israel. There have been calls from those in the Jewish and Israeli communities for a complete ban of my restaurant. I love feeding people from our region - Jews and Arabs - so of course this makes me sad.

Since I learned of this latest boycott, I have decided to write to you.

It is quite ironic that when I was asked to speak at a Jewish community conference and due to previous statements about human rights, I was made to swear that I was not a BDS supporter (Boycott Divest Sanction of Israeli products), which I am not. I do not believe in collective punishment. In the same way I am against the 14-year-long cruel blockade of Gaza.

The question of sanctions and boycotts brings me to the question of anti-Semitism.

Criticism of Israel, standing against many hurtful things and crimes that have been done in the last 73 years - and are still happening today to Palestinians - is not anti-Semitic. Standing up and being an ally to our Palestinian brothers and sisters does not mean that you are calling for the murder of Jews in Israel or anywhere else around the world.

Crying "anti-Semitism" every time someone speaks against Israel not only makes light of this serious matter but it's an insult to the memory of the millions who perished at the hands of anti-Semites not just in the Holocaust but for hundreds of years.

Anti-Semitism is alive and very real. We must always keep a sharp eye on it and call it out when we come across it. Israel is a strong state and criticisms of its actions are legitimate and do not equate to hatred of Jews.

Israel is our special place, so dear to our hearts. For me it is where I was born and raised, as were my parents and grandfather. However painful, scary or uncomfortable it is to talk about what is happening and what has happened there, since the State of Israel was declared, we must talk about it truthfully.

The foundation of the Jewish state has had a devastating effect on the indigenous people of that beloved land. History should not be denied. We know that all too well, don't we?
The Zionist dream of a homeland for the oppressed Jewish people has bought a nightmare on millions of Palestinian people. Their catastrophe is called the Nakba and it's ongoing. In Israel we are not allowed to talk or write about the Nakba and it's definitely not allowed to be taught to anyone. We are a people who hold on so dearly to our 2000-year-old history, yet we look away from the much more recent history of the people with whom our lives are entangled.

You may choose to ignore the Nakba but the people who were expelled and lost their homes and land have not vanished. They are much like our biblical Jacob and his family, who were forced off their land and yet became a big nation. The Palestinians were expelled by us, not by hunger like our ancestors. Not a handful of people, but more than 700,000 were expelled in 1948. Their descendants are now strong in numbers and strong in spirit. They live among us within Israel. They live under military rule in the occupied territories. They live in terrible conditions in Gaza. Palestinians are all over the world. And just like us, they haven't forgotten their homeland. They are not faceless terrorists, they are people like us. They are clever, generous, warm, creative and ambitious people with such strong spirits and they love their children just as much as we love ours. We grew up on Prime Minister Golda Meir's words, " We will have peace when they love their children more than they hate us." A totally dehumanising and racist statement.

We have built this idea that they are different to us, callous murderers, terrorists. We have dehumanised them for so long. It's now time to unlearn that Islamophobic and racist indoctrination, to look them straight in the eye and acknowledge their loss, their humanity.

Israel is a strong nation with a strong and sophisticated army, definitely a force to be reckoned with. We are the ones holding the power, armed to the hilt.

Yet we live in fear, forever playing the victim card. You might hear rhetoric calling for the destruction of Israel, but that's all it is, just rhetoric. No one is pushing us into the sea and at the same time they are not going away either.

I know the chant "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free" [a common call-to-arms for the establishment of a State of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea] is a scary one, but the reality is that between the river and the sea right now no one is free.

You are boycotting me because you say I am anti-Israel. I don't just live as an Israeli every day through my restaurant, I think about my home all the time. I am terrified for the people who are dear to me. I have family and dear friends who are as close as family, on both sides. I love and I miss them terribly. In the meantime, I'll be here cooking the food of Israel and Palestine out of love for both peoples.